The toddlers’ deaths were discovered on Friday morning around
9:30 am when police officers responded to a home at a townhouse
in Germantown, Maryland. There, they found a “very bloody
scene” involving six people, four of them children under the
age of 10.

Police found the dead children in their bedrooms, so it leads
them to believe that the kids might have been murdered in their
sleep, NBC Washington reported.

It turned out that two children, 1-year-old Norell Harris and
2-year-old Zyana Harris, were stabbed several times. Their
siblings of 5 and 8 years were wounded and taken to hospital,
police told Reuters.

Zakieya Latrice Avery, 28, the mother of all four children, was
charged with two counts of first degree murder and two counts of
attempted first degree murder on Saturday. Later that day,
another woman, 21-year-old Monifa Denise Sanford, was detained
and charged with the two deaths.

Avery was arrested when she reportedly tried to flee the scene.

"Investigators have learned that the two defendants believed
that they were performing an exorcism," police said in a
statement Saturday night. However, the motive is still under
investigation.

“Cases like this are heartbreaking,” Montgomery County
Police Chief Tom Manger told local TV station WUSA9.

“Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the victims
along with the 911 operators, police officers, evidence
technicians, and fire and EMS personnel that responded,” he
said.